Darian Pavli is a senior lawyer at the Open Society Justice Initiative. He focuses on freedom of information and expression issues in Africa, Latin America, and Central and Eastern Europe.

December 16 will be the seventh anniversary of the killing
of Deyda Hydara,
the dean of Gambian journalism. It is also the 20th anniversary of the first
issue of The
Point, the courageously independent-minded daily that Hydara founded
and directed for many years. He was murdered in
a drive-by shooting as he drove himself and two staff members home from an
evening of somber celebration at The Point's premises. He had received multiple
death threats in the preceding weeks and months. In his last column, he vowed
to keep fighting to the end for Gambians' right to speak their minds.